Arkansas Senator Steve Faris (D-Malvern) has introduced SB 253, to move the primary (for president and all other office) to the 2nd Tuesday in August. Currently the presidential primary is in February and the primary for other office is in May, although the House has already passed a bill to put both in May.
It is quite unusual that any state legislator would propose a presidential primary in August. No state has ever held such a late presidential primary.
On January 29, U.S. District Court Judge Morrison England refused to issue an injunction against a California law that requires disclosure of the names and addresses of small donors to initiative campaigns. ProtectMarriage.com v Bowen, no. 2:09-cv-58, e.d. The case had been filed by donors to California’s Proposition 8, the ballot measure last year to eliminate same-sex marriage. A quick appeal is likely; the law requires the disclosure by February 2. Thanks to Rick Hasen for this news.
Congressman Dana Rohrbacher introduced HR 665 on January 23. Read the bill by going to http://thomas.loc.gov and inputting the bill number. It provides that for presidential and congressional elections, the District of Columbia should be treated as though it were part of Maryland. It abolishes the office of Delegate to Congress for the District of Columbia, and says that at first, D.C. would be its own U.S. House district, but the election would be run under Maryland election laws. If, in the future, the population of D.C. is greater than the population of an average House district in Maryland, then the greater part of D.C. would be a district, and the excess would be part of a Maryland U.S. House district.
Two Montana bills to institute registration by party have been tabled. HB 248, by Rep. Ken Peterson (R-Billings) would have set up closed primaries, but it was tabled on January 28. SB 186, by Senator Joe Balyeat (R-Bozeman), which would have set up voluntary registration by party, was tabled on January 26.
Senator Balyeat also has SB 243, which would propose a constitutional amendment requiring that run-offs be held after any general election in which no one got at least 50% of the vote. The Senate State Administration heard the bill on January 28 and has not yet acted.
Arizona’s Secretary of State has posted new data on the number of registered voters. Compared to October 22, 2008, the share of voters registered “independent” has risen. Independents were 27.60% in October 2008, but are now at 28.01%.
Democrats declined from 34.22% to 34.10%. Republicans declined from 37.44% to 37.15%. Libertarians were static, at .61% in both tallies. Greens went up from .13% to .14%. Parties whose registration is below .667% in November 2009 will be removed from the ballot. Assuming the number of registered voters stays the same between now and then, Libertarians will need another 1,845 members, and Greens will need another 16,273 members.
